Ages 
An aspirational, intimate school offering a highly flexible mainstream education with a thoughtful, caring approach and an abundance of individual attention. What it loses in showy facilities it gains in specialist teachers to boost confidence and surmount learning differences. ‘My son had shut down with learning altogether before he came here and he’s now a keen, curious and engaged learner – but most of all he’s happy, confident and busy building life skills,’ said a parent.
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Overview & data
- Notes
- Extra support for pupils aged from 5 to 19 with dyslexia, dyspraxia, speech and language difficulties and autism spectrum disorders offered
- Pupil numbers
- 159 ·
- Sixth form numbers
- 17 ·
- Religion
- Christian
- Local authority
- Hertfordshire County Council
- Area guides
Headteacher
Headteacher
Mr Colin Parker
Since 2013, Colin Parker BSc PGCE DipEd CMath. Degree (maths and physics) and PGCE both from Exeter; DipEd from Oxford. Swapped a life on the seven seas (as a cruise director on the Cunard Line, including on the QE2) for a crowd of kids in Berkham
Entrance
All children have additional needs – roughly two-thirds with speech and language difficulties, half with autism, a quarter with ADHD and a third with specific learning difficulties (especially dyspraxia and dyslexia, but less dyscalculia). Social
- Open days
- Several during the year, or by appointment
Exit
Widely fluctuating numbers stay on for sixth form, with those that leave taking up courses at local FE colleges, notably West Herts, Amersham, Wycombe and Oaklands. A few also to independent schools eg Aldenham, Pipers Corner and into performing a
Latest results
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Teaching & learning
Not a special school, not even a specialist school. Instead it offers a mainstream curriculum, albeit highly flexible and backed up with therapy sessions and individual support from specialist teachers which are interwoven throughout the day accor
- Qualifications taken in 2024
- GCSE
Learning support & SEN
Support is embedded into lessons and most have additional one-to-ones or group sessions, with the result that nobody feels different. We saw illustrated books of Treasure Island so as not to frighten readers off with dense text, and English books
Arts & extracurricular
Friday afternoons (Tuesdays in juniors) are timetabled with a choice of activities, as after-school clubs clash with the long bus journeys. These change each term and include climbing, skiing or snowboarding at Hemel Hempstead, golf, fencing motoc
Sport
Juniors get outside for PE nearly every day. ‘Still features in seniors, just less of it,’ commented a parent. Rugby, football, cricket, netball, tennis and rounders are the main sports, with more fixtures than in the past especially in football a
Ethos & heritage
Founded in 1988 after the merger of two private prep schools, Egerton Rothesay – which lies just outside the historic town of Berkhamsted - has developed the original low-level buildings with a couple of timber-clad new additions. It’s not going t
Therapy & staffing
A full-time SENCo oversees six SLTs, four OTs and seven maths and literacy specialist teachers (not all full-time). There is also a social and emotional development team of three who provide support eg calming sessions in the sensory garden, altho
Pastoral care, inclusivity & discipline
The supervision team is headed up by the school chaplain and there are regular services at a local church in addition to two assemblies a week – this is a Christian school although they welcome all faiths and none. A system of ‘listening ears’ is
Pupils & parents
Students come from far and wide – as far as Greenwich in the south and Oxford in the west, with a school bus route working the 35-mile radius as much as it can, even for the youngest children. Parking has improved, making drop off and pickup less
Money matters
Eighty per cent of students are funded by their LA via EHCPs – the school currently works with 17 LAs. Several parents have had to brave tribunals for a place but while the school will offer ‘heaps of information’ it won’t attend them.
The last word
An aspirational, intimate school offering a highly flexible mainstream education with a thoughtful, caring approach and an abundance of individual attention. What it loses in showy facilities it gains in specialist teachers to boost confidence and
